Cindy Miller on a Relaxed Lead Arm (Video)

This older video from LPGA instructor Cindy Miller kind of goes along with yesterday's post about topping... but it approaches the problem of poor ball contact from the "other side" of the swing -- the upper body, rather than the lower body.



Cindy is attacking the myth that you need to keep your lead arm straight during your swing. Now, we're not talking about bending your lead elbow at a 90° angle at the top of your backswing. (Although some players do learn to play well that way. If you do, you know it.) Rather, we're talking about trying to keep your lead arm dead straight throughout your swing.

I've mentioned this "ramrod striaght" myth many times when talking about the one-piece takeaway. You don't want your lead arm stiff -- it should be relaxed and will flex slightly as you swing to the top of your swing, then return to its address position as you make your downswing. This is a natural movement for your arm -- you do it all the time when you make any kind of sweeping motion with your arm. You want to just let it happen when you swing the club as well.

In this video Cindy mentions two problems that keeping your lead arm stiff will cause. First, it can cause you to "stand up" during your backswing, just as Andrew Reynolds mentioned yesterday in that post. Stiff arms cause you to lift up and straighten up -- but this time, you overcorrect on your way down and stick the clubhead in the ground. Can you say fat shot?

The second thing this move does is cause you to open the clubface on the way back, then you leave it open on the way down. That's because a stiff lead arm won't drop back down into your normal address position, which means your arms don't rotate back to their address position where the face was square.

Ironically, you can do this upper body lifting and yesterday's lower body "push up" at the same time. What happens? Depending on which one you exaggerate, you might hit the ball fat or thin, without any apparent logic. And if you do hit the ball, the combination will likely create an over-the-top swing with an open clubface, creating that nasty banana ball we all hate.

So hopefully this week's series of posts will help you understand how excess movement in your swing -- created by trying to reach for a bigger turn than is natural for your flexibility -- can create poor contact and unwanted ball flights. So many of these problems, both with your upper body and your lower body, are caused by unnecessary tension in your arms and legs.

Maybe I'll try to post some relaxation drills next week. Learning to relax isn't hard, but a little encouragement can't hurt!

Andrew Reynolds on How to Stop Topping the Ball (Video)

This is a simple tip to improve the consistency of your impact from coach Andrew Reynolds for Golf Monthly. It's short but important.



I know this tip may sound childish at first, but it's about the logic of your golf swing... and most people never stop to reason out why the ball behaves the way it does. Let's look at it -- from a logical standpoint -- for a moment.

So many golfers believe they can stop topping the ball if they just keep their head down. As a result, they try all sorts of things to keep their heads from moving during the swing, including squatting more at address (which Reynolds mentions here) and ducking their heads on the downswing.

But topping is most often caused by raising not just your head, but your entire upper body. And that happens because you straighten your legs during your downswing. THAT is what most players refer to as "using the ground." But -- and I have written about this before, most recently a week ago -- pushing up with BOTH legs is incorrect technique. Only your lead legs pushes up when you use the ground.

In this video Reynolds offers a simple way to minimize this problem: Just stand taller at address. The logic here is simple -- if your knees are already mostly straight, and if your spine is more erect when you begin your swing, only your lead knee will bend more during your backswing. And on your downswing, straightening your lead knee will cause your body to rotate more freely while your trailing knee will be forced to bend in reaction to that turn.

And that will make the clubhead strike downward as it approaches the ball. No more topping!

Don't be quick to write this short video off as being too simplistic. It's actually a very easy way to use natural body motions to create a more consistent strike. And when you can make the correct motion happen automatically, your game will improve naturally.